


Patience

by muggle95



Category: 17776, 17776 Football
Genre: Gen, and I'm already obsessed enough to write fic for it, send help, this story has been out for what? 5 days?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 08:51:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11437398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muggle95/pseuds/muggle95
Summary: Ten isn't as patient as she hopes Nine can be. It all works out in the end.A look on the other side of the fence: mirrors Chapter 1: Please answer me.Also there's actual narration in places.(Note: all further updates are on hold until at least July 15, when 17776 officially ends, because updates keep contradicting my headcanons and I'd like to keep this canon compliant if i can)





	Patience

**Author's Note:**

> if you haven't already experienced [this masterpiece](https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football) masquerading as an article titled "What Will Football Look Like In The Future?", I recommend you read it first. It's only 6 chapters long, as of my chapter 1, though it looks like there's plenty more to come.
> 
> Hopefully canon compliant but depending on what's introduced after chapter 6, I can't guarantee anything.
> 
> Also I'm likely to post this somewhere else as well, where I can modify the color and font of my text more precisely so Ten still speaks in green Consolas font. On AO3 though, I'm restricted in styles, so all probe-speech is **bold** instead. (If that doesn't wind up a clear enough distinction, I'll come back and edit it to regular quotes).  
>  Differences in indentation still represent who is talking (consistent within chapters, may change across chapter boundaries.)

_August 21, 17742_

434 days. It would take 434 days for Nine to respond. If she was still functional at all. And if she responded well to unexpected direct messages.

Ten hoped she would respond promptly. They. That they would respond promptly. Ten had to quit projecting her own pronoun-preferences onto all the other probes she encountered. She didn’t know what form of address Nine might prefer.

434 days at least. 217 for her message to reach Nine, and 217 back, even if Nine responded immediately.

      **Will you quit counting?** Juice whined, blunt as always. Xe was never actually mean once you knew xem, and Ten had long since learned not to worry about Juice’s complaining. When xe was actually upset, xe would ignore her, and xyr silence was a terrible reminder of the time before she’d established a quantum link with anyone, floating alone in space. Even NASA wasn't listening for her anymore. By complaining, Juice was reminding her that xe cared enough to be a part of her life, backwards though it might seem.

      **How do you know Nine’s even still active? I bet their battery ran out long before we woke up.**

          **They’re awake, I’m sure of it.** Ten responded, with more ease than she felt. She didn’t bother to apologize for counting, though she did make an effort to stop repeating **434\. 434.** over  and over mentally while she fretted.

      **Well even if so, counting the minutes since you sent that old-school message isn’t going to make the months pass any faster.**

**Come on, it’s only a year to wait. It took longer than that to set up our quantum link. We’ve got eons to interact, if they’re out there.**

**In the meantime, I’m going to catch up on game #4436, if you don’t mind. Haven’t tuned into that one in about three years.**

**Is that the Florida game?**

**The one where they’re all in scuba gear running along the seafloor that used to be Florida? Yep. That’s the one. The 2025 coastline defines out-of-bounds.**

**Tennessee is trying to get the ball to old-Epcot. North Georgia is trying to get it back to the Saint Augustine lighthouse. Small targets for both of them. First score wins.**

**It’s been going for decades.**

**What I’ve never understood is how they handle the ball in those conditions. Doesn’t it just float away when they try to pass?**

**They inflated the ball with seawater, and it’s made of a heavier rubber than the usual pigskin.**

**Also the fouls are hilarious. Did you see the one two years ago where Klancher got hit in the face with the ball? Man, he surfaced so quick! I think it damaged his air valve and the nanos took over.**

**You wouldn’t let me forget about it for a month.**

**Oh yeah.**

**There was debate for ages about whether Klancher going to the surface was technically out of bounds.**

**I remember.**

**433 and a half.**

**Quit it. Give Nine a year to respond.**

**Sorry.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can do dialogue heavy but I can't do dialogue only. Accordingly, it's not quite the same style as the original, but hey - that's the point of fanfiction, right? Let me know what you thought.
> 
> And don't worry: There's plenty more chapters to come.
> 
> Also don't worry: my other fics are still in progress and will update eventually


End file.
